(Reuters) – The U.S. government will begin sending COVID-19 vaccines directly to community health centers next week in an effort to speed up vaccinations and ensure doses reach vulnerable people, U.S. health officials said Tuesday. Americans.
The government will send doses to 250 selected centers across the country based on their proximity to vulnerable groups, such as the homeless and those with limited English proficiency, they said. Typically, vaccine doses would be intended for state governments to distribute to health centers.
Finally, the effort will be extended to more than 1,300 community health centers.
The federal government will initially distribute one million doses of vaccine to health centers and increase from there, they added.
The program is part of a broader push by the Biden administration to increase access to COVID-19 shots with the goal of administering 100 million doses in the first 100 days of Biden in charge. Biden has also considered it a priority to ensure that vaccines are distributed equitably in terms of race, ethnicity and economic status.
The U.S. government is already well on its way to reaching its goal of 100 million shots in 100 days, which only required it to modestly exceed the previous administration’s distribution levels. Biden said in January he could target 150 million shots at the moment, but his press secretary later said 100 million were still the official target.
This week the White House began coordinating vaccine shipments directly to 6,500 pharmacies with the goal of reaching about 40,000.
“We are providing tools to communities across the country to do this work and look forward to working with them to ensure equity,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of COVID-19’s health equity working group. the Biden administration, in a press conference.
The United States has increased the distribution of vaccines from 8.6 million doses to 11 million weekly doses since Biden took office three weeks ago, said Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator.
The White House has said it plans to continue to increase the number of doses it distributes and will use the federal government’s emergency powers under the Defense Production Act, to increase vaccine production. Johnson & Johnson is expected to receive authorization for its experimental COVID vaccine as early as this month, which would further increase vaccine supply.
Reports by Carl O’Donnell; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman